Medical devices, such as surgical tools, developed to cause less patient trauma, can be considered to fall broadly into two classes: 1) rigid instruments, designed to be used through skin incisions under the visual guidance of images obtained through rigid laparoscopes, and 2) miniature, flexible devices designed for use with flexible endoscopes, generally operating through existing bodily orifices.
While the rigid instruments can exert reasonably high operating forces, the very rigidity that enables the operating forces also limits utility because of the need for line of sight access. The miniature, flexible devices are typically limited by the size of working channels in existing endoscopes, and this, coupled with their extreme flexibility, greatly limits the forces they can exert, and thus their utility.